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In trouble down under

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

11/2/11, 10:10 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 9:13 PM CET

Catherine Ashton criticised for taking a trip to Australia.

Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has come in for criticism in Britain for visiting the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Perth, Australia. She sandwiched the visit between meetings in China (last week) and meetings in Japan (this week). But the Commonwealth is a collection of, for the most part, former British colonies, and is not usually a direct interlocutor for the EU.

The attendance of her husband, Peter Kellner, who, among other things, is chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society, an educational charity, has added to the whispering. Eurosceptic MEP Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, told the equally Eurosceptic newspaper the Daily Mail that Ashton had “no business” being at the Commonwealth meeting.

Ashton’s office had put out a statement before her trip to Australia saying that the Commonwealth summit was “an excellent opportunity for me to meet heads of government and foreign ministers from countries throughout the Commonwealth”. It should be noted that a lot of the African leaders are favourably disposed to Ashton, dating back to her time as European commissioner for trade, chiefly on the grounds that she was not Peter Mandelson. Those of a less Eurosceptic frame of mind than Farage might see some justification for her trip: the post of secretary-general of the Commonwealth falls vacant next April. Perhaps she could be persuaded to give up her EU job in the interests of the Commonwealth.